Hello you lovely people, especially those of you who are living in the UK. I have never had pet insurance before but I think that it might be a good idea to get these two lovelies insured. Any advice with regards to good pet insurance companies would be gratefully appreciated. Thanks in advance

Yeah you should definitely get them insured. Petplan is probably the best coverage but its not the cheapest out there. I stupidly went for a cheaper insurance (thinking i would upgrade when they were a little older) and then one of mine got ill. It didnt turn out to be anything serious in the end but I wished straight away Id just paid the extra few quid a month and gone with petplan!

I have my 2 insured with Marks and Spencer, I have their premium plan, again not the cheapest but excellent cover.

My previous bengal had IBD and had loads of treatment and operations constant care and meds, in the 2 years he was having treatment before he passed away aged 5, my vets bill was 14 thousand over the 2 years, they never questioned any payment just payed it all, this is why I have my 2 now insured with them.

Everyone's situation is different! If a major illness or surgery would be a financial burden on you, then pet insurance is a great idea. For some with a healthier cat, you can save the monthly premium in a separate savings account and have it build up over time -- and have the money yourself instead of the insurance company. Some pet plans are better than others -- always read the fine print to see what is excluded! You don't want to pay years' worth of premiums only to find out an incident is not covered by the insurance or they try to say it was a pre-existing condition.

In terms of specific insurance companies in the UK, sounds like you've gotten some great advice, and I can't help there. In term of whether you should insure of not, I have some opinions about that...

What you need to do is look at your situation, and ask yourself questions like: "what would you do if you had a 5k vet bill?". If the answer is that you'd pull out your checkbook and write a check without a second thought, and still be able to pay your mortgage/rent and bills and still send your kids to college (or whatever....) then you might not need insurance.

The other part of it though is psychological. A day may (and probably will) come when a vet tells you that "I MAY be able to save your cat, but I'll have to do a really costly procedure to try". That's when even if you have the money, you'll start rationalizing not doing it. "She may die anyway" or "she's led a full life" or "I don't think she'd want that" or whatever. And pretty soon you've talked yourself out of it, for reasons that essentially boil down to "it's just not worth it".

I have a friend right now who has a middle-aged dog who tore some ligaments in his leg and has been limping around, and making it worse and all that, for months now, and they are certainly not poor, but didn't have the money lying around and couldn't justify the expense at the time the injury happened (I guess it "happened at a bad time"). With pet insurance, it makes all those decisions easy. You can be completely honest and objective about it, and simply ask whether you think it is likely to help your cat without any alterior motives or self-doubt.

Getting insurance with a high deductible is usually best, because when your kitty gets the sniffles and has to get a jab, for a $100 vet bill, that's really not why you get or need insurance. Right? The other thing is that some plans offer these ridiculous preventive services options, which are a rip-off. Basically it's a deal like, they offer to repay up to $200 of preventive stuff a year, and "only" charge your $175 for insurance, but then they load it up with really oppressive restrictions and conditions such that they tilt the odds way in their favor that you won't actually be able to bill them for the $200. Stay away from those.

That's all I got. Getting insurance really early on is a great idea, because the biggest bugaboo is the who "pre-existing conditions" thing, of which you'll have none if you get them insured as kittens.

I agree, I never thought I would need it when I had Frosty my first bengal.

I never had a pedigree cat before just ordinary cats, this was the first time I had ever insured a cat, thank goodness I did, I would have never have found 14 thousand pounds for his treatments, I don't know what I would have done.

I would also vote for Petplan. They pay out without quibble, and very quickly, and they have a stated policy of not increasing premiums in the event of a claim.

Whether it's worth getting insurance depends on your circumstances, as others have already described. Just be aware that vet costs can rocket up very quickly. My previous cat had a tumour, and I was quoted around £1800 to fully investigate, including going in via laparoscopy to see if it was operable. I was warned that they might find that the situation was so severe that they would recommend not bringing her round from the anasthesia. In that case there would still be a bill, but to no avail. The final cost was £2400, because it was operable, and hence there were additional open surgery costs. (Happily the surgery was a complete success).

As Brian said, having good insurance means you can make the treatment decision based on the best interests of the cat, and forget about the money. Personally I think it's well worth it, unless you are sufficiently wealthy to be able to pay any size of bill anytime without blinking.

For urgent surgery costing over £1000, Petplan can even pre-authorise payment, if you need absolute peace of mind on the finances.

And just as another example of unexpected costs, recently my kitten had to go to the emergency vet*, the first time I have ever needed the out-of-hours service. The consultation fee alone was £144, before any medicines or treatment, and that was for an appointment before 11pm. Goodness knows what the fee is in the small hours.

*And is now totally fine: she had uveitis caused, it was decided in the end, by blunt trauma to her eye, which has healed completely (and I am very relieved!)

I wouldn't be without insurance, you never know what is around the corner... I've never used it for Jagger but Hendrix is certainly getting his money's worth! Fractured paw, x-rays on his knees for luxating patella (which seems to have sorted itself out now his growth plates have closed, thank goodness) and PetPlan (and other pet insurance companies as well) also do 'Advertise and Reward' should your pet go missing. There is no excess on that and I was able to go to a company who print waterproof posters, hundreds of leaflets, everything you could possibly need to display the posters, advice as to where to put the posters and leaflets etc. Whilst I only needed one pack, I think I could spend up to £1,500 if required on Hendrix's insurance. I had enough to worry about without getting stressed about the money side of things!

They will also agree a reward with you to pass on but you need the recipient to sign for it which I thought a bit crass (although I understand they need to know you're not pocketing it for yourself ) so I met the cost of that as I was so incredibly grateful and happy to be reunited with the noisy and demanding little tyke.

You definitely need to look at what is included - Pet Plan is one of the bigger companies I believe and many vets also promote them.

Wow as always what fantastic advice from you all, I really do appreciate all of you taking the time to write to me. Pet plan has been recommended to me by several people and also the vets, although they aren't supposed to lol. Bryan that is a really good point that you make about making a decision that is right for your animal rather than thinking of the cost and basing your decision on that. Insurance it is then and thanks again for giving me the advice, I don't know what I would have done without you all.

My vet now only excepts Pet Plan or Marks and Spencer, I think it's a little unfair on other people who have different insurance companies.

They say if you can pay the bill and claim it back yourself that's ok, but as in my case I let the vet claim direct from the insurance company as I couldn't have paid that much money and it was on going.

They told me that Animal Friends insurance are the worse for paying out, I don't know as I've never had them.

I find you have to make sure that which ever company you choose that they pay out so much per illness per year, mine pays out 7 thousand per illness per year.

Personally I haven't taken out insurance for Merlin because I can get hands on the money if needed. I get fed up putting money into a black hole and finding (the few times I have ever made a claim) that there is always some reason you're not covered...

My Dad had insurance for his Working Border Collie, who managed to rupture a disc in his neck. We ended up taking him to see Colin the Neuro Specialist / Surgeon up at Fitzpatrick Referral's, aka The Supervet, for an MRI scan, then emergency spine surgery to repair the disc. It had leaked and compressed the spinal column by over 60%, and they had to remove the leaked gooey stuff, then repair the hole and reinforce the vertebrae to avoid a repeat. Dad had taken out insurance through the vet, and when it came down to it, they only covered the very basics - Boosters, Worming, etc. Despite the plan having been £30 plus per month, they had a 'hidden' accidental injury clause where if it had what they deemed as 'natural causes' then it wasn't covered. Bobby, thankfully, is absolutely fine now. The bill was well into the thousands, and they wouldn't even consider paying for the scan, the meds or rehab.... No chance ref the surgery itself... I now kind of own Bobby's left eyeball, and right elbow......

The practice is absolutely how you see it on telly - although even more impressive when you get there! The staff are so nice, and you feel secure that they will move Heaven and Earth for your furbaby (etc), if they have to. Noel and the team are Superstars!

I personally have found no hidden problems in my insurance, it covered the MRI scans I had done, all meds, even prescription food, the only things it doesn't cover is vaccinations and dentals and flea and worm treatments which I don't bother with as they are indoor cats.

I think as long as you read all the small print it should be fine.

I have it because if something went seriously wrong with either of mine I would not be able to find a huge amount of money.

You never know what's round the corner, I never thought in a million years I would be in the situation I was in 5 years ago and as I said I couldn't have found that amount of money.

The vets did everything for me all I did was bring in an insurance form each time the amount went up to £300 (which only took around 2 months) and they did it all for me

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